


Vermillion Knights Redux

by Silius1



Category: Show By Rock!! - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 08:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19787209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silius1/pseuds/Silius1
Summary: Alea lacta est. When one is drawn through a vortex that robs one of everything by the machinations of corrupted elite, the victim of this incident: Dillon Virgil has to strive to overcome the forces pitted against him with what support he can muster from the connections he is able to create, even when the game is rigged from the start with the odds against him.





	Vermillion Knights Redux

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Vermillion Knights](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/498043) by Silius1. 



It had been another long day at the grind at the office where Dillon Vergil is working at, having been assigned there for work experience by Hakron Exchange, a Multiverse Federation sponsored employment agency headed by Hikari Murai, whom used her financial standing, which came from her work with the Federation, in the billions of dollars to fund the creation of a specialized economic hub in a pocket dimension for the federation and all of her member species’ individual needs that is ironically owned by Hikari proper since she was the one who had convinced the council and several Isnian corporations to establish a centralized source of economics after the recruitment of the Kraylor that spread out to member states, which all but ensured that Hikari had developed a permanent source of income within Ajarin with the implementation of corporate taxes though she uses much of that money to fund another one of her companies: Shingen which is focused on ensuring a stable circle of economics exists within the pocket dimension, Hikari earning much of her money nowadays through her holdings in the global stock market on Earth.

After having heard of how difficult it was for many of the civilians within the Federation’s members to acquire work in foreign worlds, Hikari decided to use some of her money to establish Hakron with a clear modus operandi focused on helping young adults acquire temporary work contracts to give these people a chance to find permanent work, creating a network of companies that take the contracts and employ these people in three month intervals, Dillion being one of the people taken in by Hakron for said work experience, having been assigned to a corporate office in Hakron’s network: Globelight.

“Hey Vergil-san, we’re about done with our work today. Why don’t you take off early? You’ve been here all day yesterday and even slept here last night.”

Extending his arms upwards and groaning as he stretched his, up until now, stationary body to unwind, Dillon looked toward his colleague, who is one of the higher-ups in charge with schedules, with a simple nod “Got it.”

Pulling himself from his chair, Dillon walked towards the entrance of the building, seeing one of his friends from the Pursalians: Maki Isayama, her shiny snow white hair, large rabbit ears on the top of her head, and gold eyes making her stand out since just about everyone else in the building are the Terrans, in addition to her age at 15 years compared to his 17 and her customized shrine maiden/student uniform that she wears during her time in Willow Academy; musing that the only reason he can see colors aside from black, white, and gray is all because of this Neurolinker since he had acquired an (presently) incurable viral condition similar to achromatopsia when he took a vacation to Elbance when he was 11 in 2039.

* * *

After noticing her sitting in a chair in the lobby, she immediately began walking toward Dillon after noticing him pass through the door to the public side of the building

“Isayama-san, what are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You haven’t been answering our calls on your neurolinker!”

“Huh?” Reeling in confusion to Maki’s sudden remark, Dillon quickly began to open his Neurolinker’s application features “Ah, right. We were told to turn off our neurolinker’s online features to focus on work. That even includes my vision correction.” Pausing to enable said program, what was once a world of monochrome gradually was restored with color, Dillon having to cover his eyes and look downward so as to not overwhelm himself with the barrage of colors, having only seen the people around him with black, white, or gray colors, gesturing Maki to follow after him outside the building “Ugh, I hate having to adjust to this time and time again. I really wish that my doctor can get a cure made soon. I’ve had this thing six years now.”

“Dillon, remember that the Federation hasn’t exactly been able to recover from the insurrection two years ago. In the backlash of Viridius’ death, a lot of rogue Isnian soldiers destroyed crucial infrastructure throughout our various worlds. Even with Ajarin’s existence as the federation’s commercial hub, it takes time and resources to rebuild what was destroyed. Our leaders projected that it’ll take five years to fully do it and when it comes to resuming our day to day lives, that’ll take ten. Anyway, come on, we’re going shopping. We have to buy food for all the animals in Hikari’s home here.” While Dillon himself is fairly grounded with honorifics, par for the course from his japanese heritage, Maki’s among the Pursalian species which follows different societal cultures and traditions.

“Oh boy, did she get any more in that mansion of hers?”

“Six more actually. Three cats and three dogs.”

“So we’re looking at five hundred and twelve now?”

“Five hundred and thirty actually. She was contracted to shelter and protect some endangered aquatic animals until their specialized habitats are finished.”

“That girl really does have a philanthropic heart despite her laziness.” Dillon kept a stoic face as he simply nodded at his own words, having found himself within Hikari Murai’s circle of friends years ago when he had been hired to babysit for Sylvia and Kazuma’s children, meeting the others through a small VR world Hikari’s group shared between them all “How exactly does she manage to handle all those animals?”

“I wouldn’t insult your boss if I were in your shoes. Besides, Hikari uses the same kind of control interface the Isnians created that pacified the animal species on Earth and the weather control system that was used to restore Earth’s atmosphere to the days before the industrial revolution. Admittedly, the dinosaurs the Isnians revived scare me but they’re as docile as golden retrievers to federation species when exposed to the neural networks. Anyway, come on, quit slacking! We need to meet the others at the store!”

“Yeah yeah.” Resigning to his fate in the matter, Dillon allowed Maki to drag him along the cityscape that composed Ajarin, soon being freed from the gesture as Maki allowed him to walk normally, the surroundings being that of densely packed modular buildings, the doorways to each building being connected to dimensional folding technology which allowed the building interiors’ to be as large as the owner desires, the ‘ceiling’ above them being manifested as a starry night through a projector inside a large spire at the heart of the city, the environment generally kept in near perpetual twilight alit with street lights, the dimension itself being nothing but this superstructure which has been divided into districts depending on their specific purpose, built in an irregular circular shape “I can never get over how beautiful this place is. It’s like a fusion of the Citadel, Illium, and Fennmont. Of course, it’s a nightmare trying to create a schedule without a day and night cycle, but as for me, following conventional Terran timing is enough...Usually.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean. But Hikari-chan mused that it’d be better to have it set at night because of Terran night-life culture.”

As soon as the pair made it to the store’s entrance, Dillon received a new call on his neurolinker, from the CEO of Hakron: Hikari Murai.

[ **Dillon Vergil-san, I’d like you to stop by Hakron for your weekly job performance review. And there is a matter I’d like to discuss with you in private. Neurolinker calls can be monitored after all. Or rather, yours can. Federation issued Neurolinkers are granted top of the line features, encrypted security, memory space in the exabytes, and other features. So on and so forth.** ]

“Sorry Isayama-san, Murai-san’s asking for the regular review again. Mind waiting in the store?”

Maki sighed in disbelief at the end result and puffed out her cheeks “Oh fine. I’ll just call Sora and Sui to window shop and read some manga. They should be somewhere around here.”

* * *

Walking in the direction of Hakron’s office after seeing Maki huff away in anger, Dillon entered the building to find a woman with short pink hair and blue eyes, covered by red tinted glasses, wearing a rather plain white one-piece suit at the desk in the other side of the room, her focus on the computer in front of her until Dillon had reached the counter as she pulled her head up

“Welcome to Hakron Headquarters, do you have an appointment?”

“Uh. What happened to the old receptionist who was here? Saki Royama-san.”

“Saki Royama-san was transferred to the Multiverse Federation’s defensive garrison on Aegimius. As the eldest child of house Royama, being one of the Parthenian Knights’ twelve noble families, she was appointed to lead the garrison for a ten year period before ascending to lead the knights as Grandmaster Medea Lisalon’s successor, who was approved by their council of twelve. My name is Millikana Hiratasuka. Do you have an appointment?”

“Uh. Yeah. Dillon Vergil.”

“One moment please.”

“So are you new here?” Not being used to this sense of formality, having always dealt with Saki’s casual sense of speaking, Dillon spoke stiffly, unsure of how to truly react.

“Yes. I am- _was_ , a friend of Murai-san’s mother, bless her soul. With Karen-chan’s passing, I wanted to help her daughters in whatever way I could, so here I am. Many of her friends have been reaching out to the family in ways like this.” Millikana paused for a moment as she returned a glance at Dillon “I’m sorry sir, but you’re not appearing on our recipient list-”

“Send him in already Hiratasuka! I don’t have all day!!” Dillon heard this enraged shout come from the intercom next to the computer, recognizing it immediately as Hikari Murai’s.

“Y-Yes ma’am!” Her voice rattled from the angry shout, Millikana looked toward Dillon “Go right on ahead sir.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

Getting approval from Hikari in her office, Dillon edged around the right side and entered the room proper, who swiftly pressed a few buttons that made the room pitch black before getting illuminated a dull orange and red

“Okay. The room’s sealed from all outside signals but I’m not exactly taking any chances.” Hikari spoke with great firmness as she opened a nearby cabinet and pulled out a three meter long XSB cable and attached one side to her Neurolinker and slid the other side over towards Dillon, reluctantly attaching it to his own [ **Okay Vergil-san. What exactly went through your brain-dead mind when you accepted that overnight shift in addition to working the kind of hours expected of salarymen?!?! Are you** **_TRYING_ ** **to reveal what I did to help you out?!** ]

[ **I-I uh...I don’t know what you’re talking about Murai-san.** ]

[ **Oh for crying out- Look. Hakron’s policies for extended hours with our networks involve presenting the client’s identification for verification purposes. Confirm who they are. Pretty reasonable, but think for a moment about the possibility of Globelight deciding to cross-reference your ID with Earth’s databanks. Your boss would discover your true identity with surprisingly little effort and I’d be forced to throw you under the bus to save face. Invent the story that you lied about your ID to work a full job like we offer when you’re still a teenager. Remember how important Hakron is to the people working here! With Isnian technology revolutionizing society among our species, employment is becoming increasingly difficult to attain without aid and I founded Hakron to act as a bridge for people who have no other option and even had it sponsored by the Federation as an official subsidiary. I’m not going to let Federation blunders become public.** ] Hikari stopped for a moment to deeply exhale and let some of her anger vent out of her system [ **Vergil-san, I’m taking a huge risk doing this for you. You suffered greatly at home and I wanted to help in whatever way I could because of everything you’ve done for me and my friends. I used my position with the Spectres in great secrecy to get you your new identity. No. I** ** _abused_** **my position to do it and I had to keep it from my superiors. Erasing your file is both impossible because of the fact all of our citizen’s files are scattered around the globe nowadays in addition to being preserved on cloud storage and would draw too much attention to us both, so I did what I could to create you a new life in Dillon Vergil.** ] Hikari crossed her arms and let her expression become even more solemn [ **I’m going to be direct. You fuck up; You’re on your own. I’m already in a complicated situation abusing my position because I’m sure you know that Spectres have extralegal authority over individual and Federation laws. But we’re only supposed to do this if we’re on assignment, hunting targets too dangerous for conventional law enforcement. Cut through red tape which would’ve only slowed us down and allow our mark to escape.** ]

[ **I-I understand. I’ll be more careful.** ]

Once again, Hikari deeply exhaled and inhaled to bring herself back in line, removing the XSB’s connection to her Neurolinker, Dillon following suite, and put it back in the cabinet when she tied it back up to minimize its space.

“Okay, now that the rant’s over, I want to get to the normal part of these meetings. The weekly performance reviews I have with all the people enrolled in our company’s six month work experience program. I’ve been given the review from your manager in Globelight and like always, I want to hear your side: What you think of the job.”

“Got it.”

* * *

As the review proceeded on with both Hikari and Dillon giving their sides, Hikari’s expression began to sink into dismay, speaking once Dillon finished

“I was afraid of this. I’ve been hearing some horror stories from some of my other clients working with Globelight recently. I’m not sure if you know Vergil-san but the company’s changed hands about two weeks ago and the new CEO is remarkably...how do I put this delicately…? He’s not a fan of how the Federation runs things. He’s one of the traditionalists who believes Earth is best kept to Terrans only and he’s particularly vicious toward our fellow member species. Anyway, his new practices are abusing the health of my clients. I think he’s throwing you in the same pile since you’re rather outspoken about maintaining good relations with them. I mean, in the seventeen years of the Federation’s existence, you legitimately are the first person to start a romantic relationship between different species, how you were dating Paxiu Qiguai from Aegimius.”

“H-Hey now. Don’t overplay the whole thing Murai-san. We were just dating for six months when we were both sixteen. We broke up since we wanted to focus on our futures, but make no mistake, we didn’t burn bridges when it happened. We still keep in touch even now.”

“Noted. Anyway Vergil-san, I’m going to have to have a stern dialogue with him about his practices. Especially when this bastard is violating the terms and conditions Hakron sets into application. So...yeah. I’m going to need you to leave. Because, depending on how things go, I may end up using some rather crass language that’d end up traumatizing you.”

“Uh...okay. I’ll leave. Isayama-san and the others want me to go shopping with them anyway.”

“Ah yeah. That might be my fault actually. I had to blow off our meeting because of certain obligations with the Federation.” Hikari stopped for a moment as she gave a small wry smile “I have some _really_ patient friends. Even after blowing off every occasion where they want to spend time with me, they still consider me a loyal friend. They’re better than I truly deserve. I even blow off my sister and my MMO friends. Tell them I’ll find some way to make it up to them.”

“Oh, before I leave, I want to ask you something. Has there been any progress on a cure for my condition?” Just to emphasize what he is talking about, Dillon placed a finger on the side of his head, inches from his black eyes.

At the mention of this remark, Hikari’s expression darkened in unease “Not yet. To be honest Vergil-san, you’re fairly low on the queue since your condition isn’t contagious and the vision correction of our neurolinkers made many of their doctors believe it’s not worth the effort to invest significant resources into researching it. They have your medical file and a blood sample to study the contagion if it were somehow able to spread, but beyond that, no one’s been assigned to your case.” Hikari paused a moment as she looked downward and played with her hands before looking back towards Dillon “Would you want me to call on some favors the Isnians owe me when I dealt with Viridius two years ago or use my Spectre authority to get you higher on the list? Getting you new identification is one thing, asking for medical treatment is another.”

As soon as he registered what Hikari had said, he simply shook his head “No. I don’t want you using valuable resources on something petty like this. Besides, you’ve already done so much for me. It’d be selfish to ask for more.”

“Suit yourself I suppose. I’ll just call them as a regular person. But I digress. You should really leave. Oh, and I’m looking forward to your next concert Vergil-san.” Amidst her grave nature, Hikari sheepishly chuckled at the mention of listening to Dillon’s next musical performance.

* * *

Leaving the office and returning to the store where Maki, Sui, and Sora are, finding them sitting around a table in a small bookstore in a lot in the mall, Dillon passed along the message from Hikari, then joining them in their shopping trip, visiting a grand total of sixteen stores over an eight hour period, before returning to where he lives: a residential complex for the people living in this district adjacent to the shopping and industrial segments that employs the people in this region of Ajarin, stopping in front of apartment AX1183 that he lives in and put in both the passcode and letting the retinal security system scan his eyes to confirm his identity, the rent for it being paid for by Hikari Murai because of his contract with Hakron, the agreement that once he attains a permanent job, all expenses will fall to him after a month’s worth of paychecks to ensure that the individual is not forced out of their home after finally getting a job, to give them some leeway.

After hearing the door unlock, he turned the handle and entered his apartment, it being a rather traditional japanese home with a genkan and tatami flooring, the size being rather small in comparison to the norm nowadays as Dillon’s apartment has only six rooms: one bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen, living room, dining room, and a studio. Walking through the house, he soon found himself in his bedroom and laid down on his bed, exhausted from the day’s events, placing his neurolinker on an end table, his eyesight reverting back to monochrome that he's actually come to prefer when he sleeps, and faced his digital assistant

“Alexa, start playing the CD I have in the player. Single rotation.”

[ **Playing: Plasmagica CD 1** ]

Once he heard the music start to play, the song: Maze of Destiny being at the front of the list, he saw his cellphone turn on as an app opened up

“Oh come on!!” Dillon screamed in irritation as he pulled himself out of bed, taking the phone in hand and returned to his bed, looking at the screen showing what seemed to be an advertisement for a music label called Unicorn Virtual Music.Inc “The hell? I’m...not familiar with this record label. Is it American? European? Maybe an Isnian label? I did do a collab with that Scylorian idol Haruka Erizawa when her idol unit: Elfina was doing a performance on Minaria but Erizawa-san was abruptly called to Earth for a concert and needed a guitarist and drummer to supplement her singing. Though she did tell me she reached out to me because I was nearby at the time and she had heard my guitar playing a few weeks beforehand, learning who I was from the crowd. Did one of the labels watch the concert and think I’m worth signing?” Deciding to experiment, Dillon placed a single finger on the touchscreen which immediately made the image warp with static as it is replaced with unyielding darkness. Tilting his head in confusion, he soon felt his body tilt backwards as dark eyes with black sclera opening with a maniacal laugh following suite.

“Holy shit!”

Instinctively tossing his phone across the room in fright from what he had just seen, Dillon felt the anxiety within his body completely skyrocket, escalating further and further as he saw the lights in his room immediately shut off, his face beginning to sweat from the fear running down his spine. Moments later, his phone glowed a color close to white but not close enough based on what he can recognize without his Neurolinker’s vision correction as he felt a sonic pulse ring out in his mind shutting down his mental processes, rendering him unconscious.


End file.
